Thread by @jappleby

Wanna see a Creative Strategy pitch deck?

Here's my exact presentation from my #Twitch days for a campaign that just won gold at @shortyawards! Here's details on my:

- deck-making philosophy
- Slide-by-slide breakdown
- sales pitch strategy

A 🧵 breakdown:

@shortyawards This was my pitch to AT&T. They wanted to push their high speed internet to gamers, bonus points for aspiring streamers.

I can show the deck because, amazingly, they bought the exact idea. No changes. That almost NEVER happens. The case study: shortyawards.com/15th/the-first…

@shortyawards SLIDE 1: Title slide. It's... it's a title slide. It's purple because Twitch. That's... that's all I've got to say about that.

@shortyawards SLIDE 2: Gas up the brand.

I like to remind the brand what makes them special to start the show. Introduce which of their superpowers I'll hit in the pitch. You can see I start introducing consumer needs in the white subtext.

I'm big on BIG text. One-liners. Simple takeaways.

@shortyawards SLIDE 3: Introduce the brief.

I try to start blending the brand's star feature with our audience more here. Nothing crazy—they know their brief.

My deck / storytelling style is very follow-the-bouncing-ball; very linear. Each slide should naturally lead to the next.

@shortyawards SLIDE 4: Another title slide.

My deck's are kinda dramatic by design. Because there's so little text on each slide, I power through presentations—I've found inserting little *drum roll* moments gives good pauses for the audience to process.

@shortyawards SLIDE 5: A big idea one-liner.

I like to put something catchy up front that'll stick in your head as you hear the upcoming concept. It's kinda an insight, kinda a north star—I just consider it strategy set-up with some clever copywriting.

@shortyawards SLIDE 6: Introducing the platform.

Nottt many people get Twitch, so a big part of my job was making sure brands understood the basics, especially in the areas I hoped to activate. I like to keep the story going with the top line, then use columns for additional details.

@shortyawards SLIDE 7: Build slide, focusing on one feature.

Great, gave you an overview of Twitch, now let's use shading to make you focus on one very specific area. Just a simple visual trick that makes your strategy process look more precise.

@shortyawards SLIDE 8: Framing an insight

No, I'm not gonna argue with you about what an ~insight~ is. I use it here as our final framing before I introduce the big idea. It's the tinder we'll fire up for the big idea.

@shortyawards Real quick, while you're here, hi, hello, I'm Jack Appleby!

I write a social 🧵 every day to help you learn social media strategy and everything about content!

If you learned something here, follow me @jappleby & give this a RT? I'm a full-time writer, so every share counts!

@shortyawards SLIDE 9: big idea name reveal

Honestly, it's a lot easier to sell an idea with a creative or explanatory title. I like the theatrics of using another title slide to reveal that name. I'm only here for a second, tapping through to...

@shortyawards SLIDE 10: Big idea explanation

I explained so much in the strategy section that this 2 paragraph creative write-up is more of a pay-off—almost a one-slider. I need you to buy the concept, not the details.

@shortyawards SLIDE 11: Bulleted breakdown of the idea

This is the most text you'll see on one of my slides. What's important to note here: an explainer one-liner up top, a clean slide, and showing how the brand integrates into the content.

@shortyawards SLIDE 12: Building a full program

At this phase of the idea, I wanna show more twitch expertise (my voice over includes how Twitch viewers react to giveaways), more brand integration, and make the program seem deeper. More bang for your buck, more value, easier sell.

@shortyawards SLIDE 13: showing it's an evergreen idea

A common question I get: does this idea only work at a certain time? I intentionally tried to build evergreen ideas so we can slot in whenever clients have budget handy.

@shortyawards SLIDE 14: full program recap

You want a slide that shows you everything they're gonna buy from you—it builds value, it'll answer question on their side about scope + deliverables.

@shortyawards SLIDE 15: thank you

Nothing special here. I usually say "and that's the show" when I hit the slide. I gave a Wall-E "ta-da" once and instantly regretted it.